A Lot Like You

A Film by Eliaichi Kimaro

Music

Stream our entire soundtrack HERE

PETE DROGE
ORIGINAL MOTION PICTURE SOUNDTRACK
A LOT LIKE YOU
BIO

This gig changed my life—not in some surface-level career way (even though by completely giving myself to the documentary feature, A Lot Like You, I earned my first film producer credit). The change I’m talking about is bigger than a resume. It is, to quote the film, one of “real lived life.”

It began when I checked my email one afternoon in September, 2009.

I had already been working as the film’s composer for over a year, creating a catalog of musical sketches that editor Eric Frith was using as a temp score alongside a handful of instrumental mixes from my album, Under The Waves. Eric and director Eliaichi Kimaro had already been cutting the film for four years—on and off—when it took an unexpected turn. In that turn, they discovered the heart of their movie.

Next, Eli was faced with a big choice: how much of her own story would she share? She worked through that decision by writing in her journal. And on that day in September, she addressed an email to me, attached a couple of documents and clicked “send.” MORE»

Buy the Soundtrack: HERE

High res photos, album artwork and music links: HERE

Information on Droge and Puzzle Tree Music:HERE

Soundtrack Press Release: HERE»

Liner notes from A Lot Like You Soundtrack…

Having recently turned 40, I had been examining issues concerning identity and sense of self. And while questions raised in the film about what gets handed down from one generation to the next were especially intriguing to me, I had barely scratched the surface of what any of that really meant in my own life. But reading Eli’s intensely personal, unedited journal entries shook me to my core and inspired me to do some digging of my own. It took time, but after some unbelievable coincidences and a random computer glitch, I unearthed a big piece of the core that I’d been searching for: my adoption.

What followed was incredible. I began to learn how my adoption experience helped shape who I am today. I searched for my birth mother only to find that she had died just months earlier. As I wrestled with the perplexing grief that followed, I also discovered an instant bond with my biological Grandmother and Uncle, which is the stuff of fairy tales. Visiting my new family in the hills of Appalachian Ohio—where my people have lived for generations—I felt a sense of connection to place I never before imagined possible.

Meanwhile, A Lot Like You continued to take shape, giving me the perfect musical outlet for the complicated mix of emotions I was in the thick of. Eli and Eric needed music that could walk a thin line between the bitter and the sweet, and I never had to work at finding that line. I was already there.

There is a lot more to my story, and it’s still unfolding. For now we have Eli’s film, and as a companion piece, this record. But who knows, maybe one day there will be a new film, a sequel called A Lot Like You Too.

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FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE:
Contact: Virginia Piper, virginia_piper@mac.com
Thursday, May 12, 2011 206-617-6053 (cell)

Northwest Composer Pete Droge to Release Film Soundtrack
A LOT LIKE YOU on May 24, 2011
Release Coincides with Seattle International Film Festival
World Premiere of Documentary Feature Film A LOT LIKE YOU
SEATTLE—Notable Northwest composer and singer/songwriter Pete Droge is set to release film soundtrack A Lot Like You on Tuesday, May 24, 2011. The album release will coincide with the May 24, 2011 Seattle International Film Festival (SIFF) world premiere of the documentary feature film A Lot Like You.
A majority of the score is the mindfully crafted and layered melancholy folk-rock that those familiar with Droge’s catalog would expect. In fact, several tracks are instrumental remixes of songs from his 2006 release, Under the Waves. For the most part, Droge stays within his wheelhouse with gentle finger-picked acoustics, down-tempo beats, and distant electric guitars coming together to create a dusty, rough-hewn feel.
What may surprise listeners is how Droge makes use of the recording studio as an instrument, manipulating layers of filtered echos and reverb to create surrealistic, droney sonic environments. “I have been experimenting with ambient music for years now,” said Pete Droge. “These are just the first of those experiments to see the light of day.” Continued Droge, “A lot of people might hear an old Brian Eno track and think it sounds easy, but it is actually very challenging to create something sonically transparent, that can hold a mood, or emotion without dictating too much. You want it to be varied enough though, with some kind of complexity of texture, or patina that it is not noticeable for being too static and boring.”
Pete Droge was originally brought on to score A Lot Like You more than two years before the film was completed. This involvement early on in the process led to Droge becoming more intimately involved with the film and an integral part of the creative team, in the end, taking on the role as film producer for the first-time in his career.
Not only did the project lead him to new areas in his professional life, it also opened a profound chapter in his personal life. Inspired by director Eliaichi Kimaro’s honesty in the film, Pete set out on his own journey of self-discovery, looking deeply into how his adoption experience helped to shaped who he is. (For more, see “Soundtrack Bio”)
A Lot Like You raises questions about the cultures we inherit and what we choose to pass down. Through Droge’s emotional score and the unflinching film narrative, A Lot Like You reveals how bearing witness can break silences that have lasted lifetimes.
Pete Droge Bio:
From the time that he signed with Rick Rubin’s American Recordings in 1993, Pete Droge has enjoyed a multifaceted career as a recording artist, songwriter, producer, and composer.
Beginning with his hit “If You Don’t Love Me,” which was featured in Dumb and Dumber, Droge has gone on to contribute music to a myriad of film and television projects, including Zombieland, Almost Famous, Beautiful Girls, Grey’s Anatomy, as well as ad campaigns for Toyota and T-Mobile. Recently, Droge completed the score for the feature film, A Lot Like You.
In addition to releasing six albums of his own, Droge has collaborated with numerous artists, most notably Pearl Jam’s Stone Gossard. In 2003, Droge teamed up with Matthew Sweet and Shawn Mullins to form The Thorns, releasing a rootsy self-titled album on Columbia. Droge co-wrote Mullins’ #1 AAA radio hit “Beautiful Wreck.”
Droge has performed on Letterman and Leno, and toured with the likes of Tom Petty and Neil Young.
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